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Post by Hunny on Jul 3, 2013 21:27:28 GMT
July 4 isIndependence Day (United States) It is the Fourth of July in America, which means..well, not a whole helluva lot actually. Our holidays are just days off to us. We have no interesting pagan past as Europe does. And, while this day is intended to mark the anniversary of our becoming a nation, only fascists actually care about that. To the average American, as with all our holidays, it means it's a three day weekend (yay), and we'll use it as an excuse to buy a barrel of beer, some plastic cups, and invite 20 of our dearest, most obnoxious friends to come eat hamburgers and get stupid with us. (And by stupid I mean pie-eyed, dumb-assed behaving drunk "woo hoo!").
And all the while this is going on, trust me, no one is going "hooray for independence". It's just a party.
The one thing we actually do is fireworks. Every yutz who can buys fireworks (which are illegal) and lights them off in the street, which threatens to burn my house, and leave scorch marks on my car...at the very least it will make a lot of "bang!" "boom!" to have to listen to, and there will be trash in the street when i wake up. (yay).
There are official fireworks displays, big ones, held by the cities and towns, and those can be cool to lay on the grass and watch. People do enjoy going to see these. You also might find a carnival this time of year, to accompany the evening's festivities. This - as is life itself- is best enjoyed by youth. If you're young and dating, it can be a romantic adventure to go out on this evening. Ride the ferris wheel, get a kiss, win a prize for throwing things, eat carnival food (apple fritters, hot dogs, candy floss, popcorn...
_______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS______________________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE:Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them! - Albert Einstein______________________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz!
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Post by Big Lin on Jul 4, 2013 20:32:38 GMT
Happy 4th July to all our American friends!
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Post by Hunny on Jul 4, 2013 23:31:04 GMT
_____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________Every day is a holiday somewhere. Come here each morning to find out what day it is!
July 5 isWork-a-holic Day Today is Work-a-Holic Day. It recognizes the guy, or gal, who works all of the time - even during holidays. While just about everyone is enjoying the Fourth of July holiday, the Work-a-holic is off working on some project. He can't relax. It's not in his nature. He's addicted to work. It's not necessarily work out of need. It's work because there either is work to be done, or there's a perceived work project to do. Today's Saying: "All Work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy." -Author unknown. How do you know if your a work-a-holic?: -It's the Fourth of July weekend, and you are at work or brought home work. -You are working because "It's fun!" Yes, we've heard that one before. -You work because you want to, not because you need to. (yeah, right) -You are always the first one to work and/or the last one to leave. -It's Saturday, and you're working. -It's Sunday, and you're working. -You're last thoughts as you fall asleep are related to work. If you are a work-a-holic, we encourage you to use Work-a-Holic Day to break the habit. Simply take today off. Do you know a work-a-holic? We suggest you introduce your work-a-holic friends and loved ones to Hammock Day and to Relaxation Day. _______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS______________________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE: One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you. - Dennis A. Peer______________________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz!
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Post by Hunny on Jul 6, 2013 0:03:38 GMT
July 6 isTeacher's Day (in Peru)In many countries, Teachers' Days are intended to be special days for the appreciation of teachers, and may include celebrations to honor them for their special contributions in a particular field area, or the community in general. The date on which Teachers' day is celebrated varies from country to country. Teachers' days are distinct from World Teachers' Day which is officially celebrated across the world on October 5.
The idea of celebrating Teachers' Day took ground independently in many countries during the 20th century; in most cases, they celebrate a local educator or an important milestone in education (for example, Argentina commemorates Domingo Faustino Sarmiento's death on September 11 since 1915, while India celebrates Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan's birthday on September 5 since 1962). This is the primary reason why countries celebrate this day on different dates, unlike many other International Days.
_______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS______________________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE: The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.- Kahlil Gibrin______________________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz!
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Post by Hunny on Jul 7, 2013 0:39:55 GMT
July 6 In Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Poland, it is Ivana Kupala Day -By Hunny
*This article originally appeared in another thread of mine. It took me 36 hours to write. You may or may not agree with it all, but it's the truth of the holiday rather than the myth of it, and truth cant please everyone.Ivana Kupala Day is a holiday in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Poland. It's their version of the "Midsummer" holiday celebrated across Europe, marking the summer solstice (the longest day of the year).
It is yet another pagan fertility rite which was conquered and distorted by the christians. The name combines the words "Ivan" (Slavic for "John the Baptist"), and "Kupala" ("bathing"), as the church men -in order to replace the holiday with one that would control people, as they desired to do- declared it the first day of the year when they sanctioned bathing and swimming in rivers and ponds -as if it was up to them.
In spite of the christian interference, however, Kupala Day has been one of the most expressive East Slavic folk and pagan holidays. Many of its rites are connected with water, fertility and purification. The girls float flower garlands on the water of rivers and tell their fortunes from their movement. Lads and girls jump over the flames of bonfires, to show their love will last. The festival was originally a fertility rite intended to assure a good harvest. Kupala was the Pagan Goddess of Harvest and Love. She was personified as the Earth's fertility. As part of that, the Eve of Kupala featured also courting and sexual rituals.
The christian conquerors tried to suppress the festival -not because of the mating- but because they wanted to blot out whatever culture there was and replace it with their own, as conquerors do. The sexuality was just something they grabbed as an excuse.
And this was a part of why christianity became "against" sexuality, nudity, and natural things. They needed to invent reasons why those they wished to condemn for replacement were bad. If it was a fertility right, call it "bad". It could have been about balloons, and they would have said balloons were bad.
Well they were unsuccessful at suppressing the festival, so the men of the church did what they normally did: they concocted a holiday of their own to replace it with, by combining with it. And they called this new day "Ivan Kupala" (which translated means "John the Baptist's Bathing Day" or more to their point, "Church-Authorized Bathing Day"). They did manage to sanitize the customs a bit, but in spite of the efforts of some allegedly sexless, dress-wearing men-who-live-with-other-men, it's still a festival for young unmarried people, with plenty of opportunities for hooking up.
Originally, celebrating this holy day involved people gathering outside the village, in the forest, or near a stream or pond where they built bonfires. The fires were not allowed to go out, and were used to burn herbs and various items that were blessed. One legend has it that this is the only night of the year when you can see the flowers of the fern glow in the dark. There is an ancient belief that whoever finds a fern-flower would become immensely rich. Hence, on that night village folk would roam through the forests in search of magical herbs.
Other legends suggest that the sun is playing games, that trees can walk from place to place, and that this night is a perfect opportunity to find out who is the village witch.
[EDIT: And maybe they can burn the poor woman alive, and cheer, just for old time's sake, and so the kids can watch? The Wiccan Sabbath occurs on the Eve of Ivan Kupala. It is the same people celebrating the same thing, but in our history, brutal people vilify and dehumanize defenseless people, just to show the rest of the people who to be scared of, and do as they're told by. The christians tortured and burned alive an estimated 1.2 million women. This practice went on for centuries. Yet most people today have no sense of horror that this happened, because of various holiday traditions which take lightly, or even celebrate, that we did this -even by burning a woman in effigy. It's abysmally wrong, and we need to stop it.]
Celebrations usually go on all night, especially in the countryside. The young unmarried men in the village make the Kupalytsia doll and dress it as a woman. The young women work on the Kupala doll and dress it as a man. At the end of the celebration, the Kupala doll is burned in a fire, and the Kupalytsia is drowned in water.
The girls sing special songs ("kupalni"), with a lot of references to love and marriage. They also put a burning candle in the middle of a flower garland and float it on the water and tell their fortunes from the behavior of the garland in the water. Young boys and girls jump over a fire holding hands. According to the legend, the couple will stay together as long as they do not let go of each other’s hands.
Why 'fire & water'... Life's dependence on the Sun is obvious to the farmer. In Slavic countries the most important cyclical feasts were linked with the summer and winter solstices. On June 24, near the longest day of the year, Slavs for centuries have celebrated nocturnal rites of fire and water, life and death. This is Kupala Day (in Poland, Sobótka). The focus of the ritual is the burning of bonfires. Up until the 19th century, the fire was made in a ritual way - rubbing wood. Fire kindled in this way was known as 'living fire'. Women girdled in mugwort, a magical and healing herb, danced around the bonfires. Men jumped over them, singly or in pairs. And songs were sung: as fortune telling, matchmaking of young couples, and as incantation with sun symbols. Songs and dances of erotic nature were often accompanied by orgiastic behavior of the young participants in the ritual.
During the feast of Kupala, along with rites linked to life and fire, were those linked to death and water. The custom of drowning a straw effigy (the Kupalytsia, the female doll the young men make) is a remnant of the ancient practice of human sacrificing. The words various peoples have for these dolls mean "death, ghost, nightmare, or dream". To die submerged in water is significant, symbolically, because water represents the vast unconscious which life supposedly emanates from, like a dream which becomes physical. (Hence the notion of death being not an end, but a "submersion" in the realm where we are dreamed of and so re-born again into the world). So sacrificing wasn't intended to be about killing. Quite the opposite, they were very interested in re-birth, in the cycle of death and re-birth. To drown you, to them, was to let you live again; to send you to God so you can come back.
The christian practice of baptizing -and their ideas of being "born again" and of "resurrection"- stem from this ancient idea as well.
In some parts of these countries, instead of burning or drowning a doll, a circle on a pole is burned - symbol of the sun.
From another source...
Kupała was the festival celebrated on the Summer solstice in June. It was a sacred holy day honoring the two most important elements: Fire and Water. The tradition is to burn fires at the end of the day and bathe in open waters at sunset, singing and dancing around till midnight. Then, under the pretext of searching for the "flower of the Fern", unmarried men and women would run into the forest. Ladies with a crown of flowers on their head, a symbol of their unmarried state, go first, singing. Next they are followed by single men. If you find the "flower of the Fern" the wishes of life may be fulfilled. The lucky man would return with a flower ring on his head, with the now engaged lady._____________________________________________
Modern times... Below is what you tube shows as a modern version of the fire ceremony. Notice they stay clean. There's no Earth under foot, no pond of water, no messy, potential lawsuit-producing jumping over fire. And it's not a fire that will stay lit. ...It seems as if all the holidays have ceased having any significant meaning. Like "Xmas", they've been reduced to rituals that seem like..just rituals. Kupala Day has even been moved from June 24 to July 7, for convenience, so it isn't held on the solstice any more. That's how little it matters that it still mean what it meant.
As someone who researches and writes of the holidays, I've noticed they were mostly pagan holy days when they started - significant meaningful activities that were very real to people, and relevant to their lives.
But these holy days all got changed into something ridiculous by the christians: buffoonish re-castings of those real and important things, into recommendations of repression and being obedient and worshiping to those who demand it.
Then those bastardized versions of the holidays were themselves changed, and made entirely empty, by the industrial revolution and information age. Now we all know, for instance, that Valentine's Day is just about giving cards, because "we're obliged to" so that some rich people can make even more money they don't need. And we know that "Xmas" is likewise just an obligation on our time and money. Few of us attach meaning to the occasion any more. And the businesses who turned it this way even told us we must say the generic term "Seasons Greetings", not "Merry Christmas", because we aren't even to be allowed to have the uniqueness, which was the meaning, of the holiday anymore. ( It "wouldn't be fair to others", they said. )
I'm not really complaining about this, but I do lament living in a time which has no meaningful traditions the people own...
We do what the church threatened people into doing hundreds of years ago, which was awful then, and senseless now.
We do what the business people who enslave us tell us to do (buy cheap crappy products with the pauper's wages they give us, so we have to give the money back).
And we do as the government bids: celebrate war and encourage our kids, and the future, to value it too.
Nice. Why don't we make up a few holidays of our own? - relevant to our lives, and our time (and screw the government)? Why not? That's what I want. Meaning. And ownership. And celebration of real important things, of our lives, that we value.
Frankly, our holidays are an embarrassment. We're always imitating things people did in the past, which we don't understand, believe in or care about. The holidays (at least in the United States) are just viewed as "days off" now, by people. Well, you can blame the christians for this, because before their brutal conquest, the pagans were not mimicking obsolete superstition, nor some asinine nonsense they'd been forced to adopt. They were celebrating their real life stuff, with zest. Why don't we do that? Or do you think we should just continue to do as the child-molesting priests would have us do, and the business owners who own us, whom - between the two interest groups - collectively wish for us to *eat chocolate chicken eggs laid by rabbits because this lends meaning to resurrection??? (*using Easter as an example). Well..
Back to Kupala: Is this holiday just empty nonsense now too? Because they do seem to be having a little fun, in the video. (Although that's a human effigy their burning. Check it out.
This seems a little more like it. It's a shame I can't translate the Russian though.
__________________________
I can't understand the language, but these songs are charming. Kupala is a rare holiday that still observes its original meaning mostly. Living in the US means we have no Pagan past, and our holidays here all seem to be produced for government interest. How drab. Perhaps this is why I find Kupala Day so likable.
_______________________________________
*I would love to ask a Christian from that part of the world -not an excuse-making one, a devout one, a fundamentalist believer- to tell me what does this holiday mean to you? I mean, "John the Baptist Bathing Day"?? Could the notion of a day, pronouncing when the church says it's okay to take a bath, be important? -regarding God and spirituality? How? And what do you think of the Pagan rituals still in practice (including baptism)? Is the Eve of Kupala a good night for finding "witches"? Christianity said it is. How do you reconcile belonging to an organization with a history of obscene evil, of mass-murder on a vast, centuries-long scale ( the million+ women your progenitors tortured and burned alive?) (for one example) Did GOD do that? Was it okay at the time? - And how do you real christians celebrate this holiday now? What are the traditions and meanings? Or do you not celebrate it; do you hide and pray while the people act like "pagans" for a day (gasp)?
Next year, for Kupala Day, I will use this list of questions for interviews, and post the replies here.
I will not, however, refer to the day as "Ivana's". It was not Ivana's. And therefore Ivana should not get to keep it. To the church I say: homosexual pedophile priests, and faithless soldiers with crosses on their weapons, had no right to oppress a people, take their sacred things from them, torture them, and burn them alive. It is YOUR RELIGION which should be defamed and oppressed. For time going by does NOT make what your organization has done okay. You should have to make reparations, and you should be sued for burning women in effigy even now. I'm glad it came out that your holy men all screw little boys. Pedophiles are the most hated people among us, and for your long horrible history of killing and torturing and culture-wrecking, it seems just that you should be hated that much now and lose your power.
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Stay tuned to this thread folks. We're going to dig up all the sociological dirt. We're going to look at the reality, not the fiction. (You can get that anywhere.)
Until then, we are all from "Countries Around The World"...
_______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS______________________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE:Attitudes are contagious. Are yours worth catching? - Wendy Mannering______________________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz!
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Post by Hunny on Jul 9, 2013 0:12:02 GMT
July 9 isNunavut Day I honestly didn't know there was a Nunavut, but there is and this is Nunavut Day! Here's what I could find out about it... On July 9, 1993, following the passing of the 1982 referendum on the question of the division of the Northwest Territories, the Parliament of Canada passed the Nunavut Act, establishing the territory of Nunavut. In 1999, Nunavut became a legally distinct territory from the Northwest Territories and July 9 was decided to be celebrated as Nunavut Day.
Nunavut Day is a public holiday for the public service, as per the 2001 Nunavut Day Holiday Order. Despite being a declared public holiday in the territory, many organizations and stores remain open throughout the day. Employees of the federal government of Canada must still work on this day, as it is not treated as a public holiday for federal public servants (despite being deemed as such for territorial public servants).
Several cultural activities and events are organized throughout the day, including community-wide breakfasts, traditional dancing, games, Nunavut history competitions, policy announcements by the Government of Nunavut or related bodies and speeches by leaders of local communities. Traditional food is also served in some communities - the 2010 Iqaluit Nunavut Day celebrations featured a barbecue of burgers made from muskox meat.
Symbols... An important symbol of Nunavut Territory is a blue and white image of a polar bear on an iceberg with a single star in the sky. The star represents the North Star and the leadership of elders in the community. The lower part of the image includes the word "Nunavut" and its equivalent in Inuktitut - the language spoken by many First Nations communities in Nunavut. This image is widely used in the Nunavut Government's documents.
Okay I'm a little unclear on this. One source says "The inukshuk (pictured above) is an Inuit land marker representing sacred places in the landscape." Another source explains that when stones are placed in the shape of a human -their traditional meaning is roughly 'someone was here' or 'you're on the right path'. Polar bears walking along the coast of Nunavut. _______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS_____________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE: The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.- Samuel Johnson_____________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz!
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Post by Hunny on Jul 9, 2013 22:20:07 GMT
July 10 isNikola Tesla DayTesla's birthday, the 10th of July, has been suggested by some to be World Tesla Day, Nikola Tesla Day, or simply, Tesla Day. Some organizations already celebrate Tesla Day informally on July 10. Google honored Tesla on his birthday on 10 July 2009 by displaying a doodle in the Google search home page, that showed the G as a Tesla coil.
Who's Tesla?... Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was an inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. He was an important contributor to the birth of commercial electricity, and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems, including the polyphase system of electrical distribution and the AC motor, which helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan, Croatian Military Frontier in Austrian Empire (today's Croatia), he was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen. After his demonstration of wireless communication through radio in 1894 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America. Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. During this period, in the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture, but because of his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist by many late in his life. Tesla never put much focus on his finances and died impoverished at the age of 86.
The International System of Units unit measuring magnetic field B (also referred to as the magnetic flux density and magnetic induction), the tesla, was named in his honor (at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1960), as well as the Tesla effect of wireless energy transfer to wireless powered electronic devices (which Tesla demonstrated on a low scale with incandescent light bulbs as early as 1893 and aspired to use for the intercontinental transmission of industrial power levels in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project).
Aside from his work on electromagnetism and electromechanical engineering, Tesla contributed in varying degrees to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar, and computer science, and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics. A few of his achievements have been used, with some controversy, to support various pseudosciences, anti-gravity and UFO theories, early New Age occultism and teleportation.
_______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS______________________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE:Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea. - Jim Rhon ______________________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz!
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♫anna♫
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Post by ♫anna♫ on Jul 10, 2013 1:52:50 GMT
July 10 isNikola Tesla DayTesla's birthday, the 10th of July, has been suggested by some to be World Tesla Day, Nikola Tesla Day, or simply, Tesla Day. Some organizations already celebrate Tesla Day informally on July 10. Google honored Tesla on his birthday on 10 July 2009 by displaying a doodle in the Google search home page, that showed the G as a Tesla coil.
Who's Tesla?... Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was an inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. He was an important contributor to the birth of commercial electricity, and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems, including the polyphase system of electrical distribution and the AC motor, which helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan, Croatian Military Frontier in Austrian Empire (today's Croatia), he was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen. After his demonstration of wireless communication through radio in 1894 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America. Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. During this period, in the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture, but because of his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist by many late in his life. Tesla never put much focus on his finances and died impoverished at the age of 86.
The International System of Units unit measuring magnetic field B (also referred to as the magnetic flux density and magnetic induction), the tesla, was named in his honor (at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1960), as well as the Tesla effect of wireless energy transfer to wireless powered electronic devices (which Tesla demonstrated on a low scale with incandescent light bulbs as early as 1893 and aspired to use for the intercontinental transmission of industrial power levels in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project).
Aside from his work on electromagnetism and electromechanical engineering, Tesla contributed in varying degrees to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar, and computer science, and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics. A few of his achievements have been used, with some controversy, to support various pseudosciences, anti-gravity and UFO theories, early New Age occultism and teleportation.
_______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS______________________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE:Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea. - Jim Rhon ______________________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz! My son insisted that we see the film "The Prestige" together. One of 2 rival magicans discovers the frightening secret of Tesla's machine and how real magic can be made for the performance. A very disturbing film!
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Post by Hunny on Jul 10, 2013 22:46:39 GMT
July 11 isWorld Population DayWorld Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11 every year, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The event was established by the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Program in 1989. It was inspired by the public interest in Five Billion Day on July 11, 1999 approximately the date on which the world's population reached five billion people. World Population Day 2012 Theme - “Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services”. The world population on July 9, 2012, was estimated to have been 7,025,071,966. Population density by country (2007) _______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS______________________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE: The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits. - Nathaniel Hawthorne ______________________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz!
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Post by Hunny on Jul 11, 2013 23:39:19 GMT
July 12 is"The Twelfth"
The twelfth (also called The Glorious Twelfth or Orangemen's Day) is a yearly Protestant celebration held on 12 July. It originated in Ireland during the 18th century. It celebrates the Glorious Revolution (1688) and victory of Protestant king William of Orange over Catholic king James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690). The Battle of the Boyne
The Battle of the Boyne... was fought in 1690 between two rival claimants of the English, Scottish, and Irish thrones – the Catholic King James and the Protestant King William (who had deposed James in 1688) – across the River Boyne near Drogheda on the east coast of Ireland. The battle, won by William, was a turning point in James' unsuccessful attempt to regain the crown and ultimately helped ensure the continuation of Protestant ascendancy in Ireland.
The battle took place on 1 July 1690 in the "old style" (Julian) calendar. This was equivalent to 11 July in the "new style" (Gregorian) calendar, although today its commemoration is held on 12 July.
William's forces defeated James' army of mostly raw recruits. The symbolic importance of this battle has made it one of the best-known battles in the history of the British Isles and a key part of the folklore of the Orange Order. Its commemoration today is principally by the Protestant Orange Institution.
Background to the battle... The battle is seen as the decisive encounter in a war that was primarily about James's attempt to regain the thrones of England and Scotland, resulting from the Immortal Seven's invitation to William and James' daughter, Mary, to take the throne. It is especially remembered as a crucial moment in the struggle between Irish Protestant and Catholic interests.
In an Irish context, however, the war was a sectarian and ethnic conflict, in many ways a re-run of the Irish Confederate Wars of 50 years earlier. For the Jacobites, the war was fought for Irish sovereignty, religious toleration for Catholicism, and land ownership. The Catholic upper classes had lost almost all their lands after Cromwell's conquest, as well as the right to hold public office, practise their religion, and sit in the Irish Parliament. They saw the Catholic King James as a means of redressing these grievances and securing the autonomy of Ireland from England. To these ends, under Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, they had raised an army to restore James after the Glorious Revolution. By 1690, they controlled all of Ireland except for the province of Ulster. Most of James II's troops at the Boyne were Irish Catholics.
Conversely, for the Williamites, the war was about maintaining Protestant and English rule in Ireland. They feared for their lives and their property if James and his Catholic supporters were to rule Ireland. In particular, they dreaded a repeat of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, which had been marked by widespread killings. For these reasons, Protestants fought en masse for William of Orange. Many Williamite troops at the Boyne, including their very effective irregular cavalry, were Protestants from Ulster, who called themselves "Inniskillingers" and were referred to by contemporaries as "Scots-Irish".
Ironically, historian Derek Brown notes that if the battle is seen as part of the War of the Grand Alliance, Pope Alexander VIII was an ally of William and an enemy to James; the Papal States were part of the Grand Alliance with a shared hostility to Louis XIV of France, who at the time was attempting to establish dominance in Europe and to whom James was an ally.
OPPOSING FORCES
Commanders... The opposing armies in the battle were led by the Roman Catholic King James II of England, Scotland, and Ireland and opposing him, his nephew and son-in-law, the Protestant King William III ("William of Orange") who had deposed James the previous year. James's supporters controlled much of Ireland and the Irish Parliament. James also enjoyed the support of his cousin, Louis XIV, who did not want to see a hostile monarch on the throne of England. Louis sent 6,000 French troops to Ireland to support the Irish Jacobites. William was already Stadtholder of the Netherlands and was able to call on Dutch and allied troops from Europe as well as England and Scotland.
James was a seasoned officer who had proven his bravery when fighting for his brother — King Charles II — in Europe, notably at the Battle of the Dunes (1658). However, recent historians have noted that he was prone to panicking under pressure and making rash decisions, possibly due to the onset of the dementia which would overtake him completely in later years. William, although a seasoned commander, was hardly one of history's great generals and had yet to win a major battle. Many of his battles ended in stalemates, prompting at least one modern historian to argue that William lacked an ability to manage armies in the thick of conflict. William's success against the French had been reliant upon tactical manoeuvres and good diplomacy rather than force. His diplomacy had assembled the League of Augsburg, a multi-national coalition formed to resist French aggression in Europe. From William's point of view, his takeover of power in England and the ensuing campaign in Ireland was just another front in the war against King Louis XIV.
James II's subordinate commanders were Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, who was Lord Deputy of Ireland and James's most powerful supporter in Ireland; and the French general Lauzun. William's second-in-command was the Duke of Schomberg, a 75-year-old professional soldier. Born in Heidelberg, Germany, Schomberg had formerly been a Marshal of France, but, being a Huguenot, was compelled to leave France in 1685 because of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
William III ("William of Orange") King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Stadtholder in the Netherlands James VII and II Deposed King of England, Scotland and Ireland, by Godfrey Kneller, 1684 Armies... The Williamite army at the Boyne was about 36,000 strong, composed of troops from many countries. Around 20,000 troops had been in Ireland since 1689, commanded by Schomberg. William himself arrived with another 16,000 in June 1690. William's troops were generally far better trained and equipped than James's. The best Williamite infantry were from Denmark and the Netherlands, professional soldiers equipped with the latest flintlock muskets. There was also a large contingent of French Huguenot troops fighting with the Williamites. William did not have a high opinion of his English and Scottish troops, with the exception of the Ulster Protestant irregulars who had held Ulster in the previous year. The English and Scottish troops were felt to be politically unreliable, since James had been their legitimate monarch up to a year before. Moreover, they had only been raised recently and had seen little battle action.
The Jacobites were 23,500 strong. James had several regiments of French troops, but most of his manpower was provided by Irish Catholics. The Jacobites' Irish cavalry, who were recruited from among the dispossessed Irish gentry, proved themselves to be high calibre troops during the course of the battle. However, the Irish infantry, predominantly peasants who had been pressed into service, were not trained soldiers. They had been hastily trained, poorly equipped, and only a minority of them had functional muskets. In fact, some of them carried only farm implements such as scythes at the Boyne. On top of that, the Jacobite infantry who actually had firearms were all equipped with the obsolete matchlock musket. Battle of the Boyne between James II and William III, 11 July 1690
The battle... William had landed in Carrickfergus in Ulster on 14 June 1690 and marched south to take Dublin. James chose to place his line of defence on the River Boyne, around 30 miles (48 km) from Dublin. The Williamites reached the Boyne on 29 June. The day before the battle, William himself had a narrow escape when he was wounded in the shoulder by Jacobite artillery while surveying the fords over which his troops would cross the Boyne.
The battle itself was fought on 1 July OS (11th NS), for control of a ford on the Boyne near Drogheda, about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) NW of the hamlet of Oldbridge (and about 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi) WNW of the modern Boyne River Bridge). William sent about a quarter of his men to cross the river at Roughgrange, about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) west of Donore and about 6 miles (9.7 km) SW of Oldbridge. The Duke of Schomberg's son, Meinhardt, led this crossing, which Irish dragoons in picquet under Neil O'Neill unsuccessfully opposed. James, an inexperienced general, thought that he might be outflanked and sent half his troops, along with most of his artillery, to counter this move. What neither side had realized was that there was a deep, swampy ravine at Roughgrange. Because of this ravine, the opposing forces there could not engage each other, but literally sat out the battle. The Williamite forces went on a long detour march which, later in the day, almost saw them cut off the Jacobite retreat at the village of Naul.
At the main ford near Oldbridge, William's infantry led by the elite Dutch Blue Guards forced their way across the river, using their superior firepower to slowly drive back the enemy foot-soldiers, but were pinned down when the Jacobite cavalry counter-attacked. Having secured the village of Oldbridge, some Williamite infantry tried to hold off successive cavalry attacks with disciplined volley fire, but were scattered and driven into the river, with the exception of the Blue Guards. William's second-in-command, the Duke of Schomberg, and George Walker were killed in this phase of the battle. The Williamites were not able to resume their advance until their own horsemen managed to cross the river and, after being badly mauled, managed to hold off the Jacobite cavalry until they retired and regrouped at Donore, where they once again put up stiff resistance before retiring.
The Jacobites retired in good order. William had a chance to trap them as they retreated across the River Nanny at Duleek, but his troops were held up by a successful rear-guard action.
The casualty figures of the battle were quite low for a battle of such a scale—of the 50,000 or so participants, about 2,000 died. Although three-quarters of them were Jacobites, William's army had far more wounded. At the time most of the casualties of battles tended to be inflicted in the pursuit of an already-beaten enemy; this did not happen at the Boyne, as the counter-attacks of the skilled Jacobite cavalry screened the retreat of the rest of their army. The Jacobites were badly demoralised by the order to retreat, which lost them the battle. Many of the Irish infantrymen deserted. The Williamites triumphantly marched into Dublin two days after the battle. The Jacobite army abandoned the city and marched to Limerick, behind the River Shannon, where they were unsuccessfully besieged.
After his defeat James did not stay in Dublin, but rode with a small escort to Duncannon and returned to exile in France, even though his army left the field relatively unscathed. James's loss of nerve and speedy exit from the battlefield enraged his Irish supporters, who fought on until the Treaty of Limerick in 1691; he was derisively nicknamed Seamus a' chaca ("James the shit") in Irish. Aftermath... The battle was overshadowed in its time in England by the defeat of an Anglo-Dutch fleet by the French two days later at the Battle of Beachy Head, a far more serious event in the short term; only on the continent was the Boyne treated as an important victory. Its importance lay in the fact that it was the first proper victory for the League of Augsburg, the first-ever alliance between the Vatican and Protestant countries. Thus the victory motivated more nations to join the alliance and in effect ended the fear of a French conquest of Europe.
The Boyne also had strategic significance for both England and Ireland. It marked the end of James's hope of regaining his throne by military means and probably assured the triumph of the Glorious Revolution. In Scotland, news of this defeat temporarily silenced the Highlanders supporting the Jacobite Rising, which Bonnie Dundee had led. In Ireland, the Boyne fully assured the Jacobites that they could successfully resist William. But it was a general victory for William, and is still celebrated by the Protestant Orange Order on the Twelfth of July.
The treaty of Limerick was written first and was very generous to Catholics. It allowed most land owners to keep their land so long as they swore allegiance to William of Orange. It also said that James could take a certain number of his soldiers and go back to France. However, Protestants in England were annoyed with this kind treatment towards the Catholics, especially when they were gaining strength and money. Because of this, the penal laws were introduced. These laws included banning Catholics from owning weapons, reducing their land, and prohibiting them from working in the legal profession. "The Twelfth"
Orangemen parading in Bangor on 12 July 2010
Members of the Orange Order and Protestant marching bands hold large parades throughout Northern Ireland and, to a lesser extent, in other parts of the world where Orange lodges have been set up. Streets are also decorated with British flags and bunting. The Twelfth is a public holiday in Northern Ireland. While it is a Protestant celebration, not all Northern Irish Protestants celebrate it, whether due to political or cultural reasons or indifference.
In Ulster, where roughly half the population is Protestant and half Catholic, The Twelfth has been accompanied by violence since its beginning. Many Catholics and Irish nationalists see the Orange Order and its marches as sectarian, triumphalist and supremacist. The Order's political links to unionism has also caused tension around Twelfth celebrations. Violence related to The Twelfth in Northern Ireland worsened during the 30-year ethno-political conflict known as The Troubles. The Drumcree conflict is perhaps the most well-known dispute involving Orange marches. However, attempts have recently been made to downplay the political aspects of the marches and present the Twelfth as a cultural, family-friendly event at which tourists are welcome. In Belfast, for example, it has been re-branded as Orangefest.
Lead-up to the Twelfth... Northern Ireland's "marching season" begins at Easter. From then until the Twelfth the Orange Order and Protestant marching bands hold numerous parades. The most common of these are lodge parades, in which one Orange lodge marches with one band. Others, such as the "mini-Twelfth" at the start of July, involve several lodges.
From June to August, Protestant, unionist and loyalist areas of Northern Ireland are decorated in a 'loyal' style. Streets and houses are bedecked with bunting and flags (mainly the Union Flag and Ulster Banner). The bunting and flags are usually flown from lamp-posts. Kerbstones may be painted red, white and blue and murals may be made. Wooden arches, bedecked with flags and Orange symbolism, are raised over certain streets.
The raising of flags and arches near Irish Catholic and nationalist areas, or in "neutral" areas, had led to many violent clashes. Flying the flags of illegal loyalist paramilitaries, such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association (UDA), is especially contentious when deliberately erected outside Catholic churches and schools.
Eleventh Night... On the night before The Twelfth—the "Eleventh Night"—huge bonfires are lit in many Protestant, Unionist and Loyalist areas of Northern Ireland. In many Protestant communities the bonfires are seen as family-friendly community celebrations. However, not all Protestants attend the bonfires and people from the Irish Catholic community avoid them. Some Eleventh Night bonfires involve sectarian and loyalist paramilitary displays. Symbols of Irish nationalism/republicanism (such as the Irish tricolour) and symbols of Catholicism are sometimes burnt on the fires. Loyalist paramilitaries have also used the event to hold "shows of strength" – which often involve masked gunmen firing volleys of shots into the air. Another issue that has been raised is drunkenness and violence amongst those attending. More recently, there has been criticism that most of what is burnt causes serious environmental pollution. However, in recent years, there have been attempts to make the bonfires more family-friendly and environmentally-friendly.
In 2012 some bonfires in Belfast burned Polish flags as well as the Irish Tricolour. The Polish Association of Northern Ireland described it as "racist intimidation".
Main Events... The main way in which the Twelfth is celebrated is through large parades involving Orangemen and supporting bands. Most of the parades are in Northern Ireland, though Orange lodges elsewhere often hold parades too. The parade usually begins at an Orange Hall, proceeds through the town and out to a large field where the marchers, their friends and family, and the general public gather to eat, drink and listen to speeches by clergymen, politicians and senior members of the Order. In the past the Twelfth has been a major venue for discussion of the political issues of the day. A church service will also be held and sometimes band prizes will be awarded. Within Northern Ireland, each District Lodge usually organises its own parade. In rural districts the parade will rotate around various towns, sometimes favouring those in which there is less likely to be trouble, but in other years choosing those in which it is felt the 'right to march' needs to be defended.
In Northern Ireland, there is a long tradition of Protestant and loyalist marching bands, which can be found in most towns. The Orangemen hire these bands to march with them on the Twelfth. The bands have a reputation as being less respectable than the Orangemen, although they are seen by many as serving the useful purpose of keeping young men from working class areas out of trouble. An instrument almost unique to these marches is the Lambeg drum. Popular songs include "The Sash" and "Derry's Walls". Explicitly violent songs such as "Billy Boys" may also be played.
The vast majority of marchers are men, but there are some all-women bands and a few mixed bands. Some all-male bands have female flag or banner carriers. There are also some Women's Orange Lodges who take part in the parades. Orangewomen have paraded on the Twelfth in some rural areas since at least the mid-20th century, but were banned from the Belfast parades until the 1990s.
Orangemen on parade typically wear a dark suit, an Orange sash, white gloves and a bowler hat.[8] Certain Orangemen carry a ceremonial sword. In hot weather, many lodges will parade in short-sleeved shirts. Orangewomen have not developed a standard dress code, but usually dress formally. The supporting bands each have their own uniforms and colours. Both the Orangemen and bands carry elaborate banners depicting Orange heroes, historic or Biblical scenes, and/or political symbols and slogans. The most popular image is that of King William of Orange crossing the River Boyne during the famous battle.
At the field, some lodges and bands don humorous outfits or accessories and make the return journey in them, and the mood is generally more mellow, although in times of tension it can also be more aggressive.
The Northern Ireland parades are given extensive local TV and press coverage and the BBC program 'The Twelfth' is the longest running outside broadcast program in Northern Ireland.
The Shankill Road decorated with flags and bunting for The Twelfth
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Post by Hunny on Jul 13, 2013 0:40:21 GMT
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July 13 isEmbrace Your Geekness Day A geek is an individual who is highly intelligent (brainy) and technically oriented. They are most often associated with the computer. A geek is usually formal, studious and into his technical world, often to the exclusion of all else. A geek is closely related to a "Nerd". A nerd however, may or may not possess technical expertise. Some people view the term "Geek" with a negative connotation. Are they jealous of your knowledge and skills, perhaps? We certainly think so. Enjoy Embrace Your Geekness Day to the fullest. Spend plenty of time with your computer. Talk computer lingo and jargon. If you are a geek, stand tall and proud. Isn't it great to be so brilliant and gifted!? _______________________________________ MONSTER ALBUMS______________________________________________________________DAILY QUOTE: Men of genius are meteors destined to burn themselves out in lighting up their age.- Napoleon Bonaparte______________________________________________________________ Come back each day for The Daily Buzz!
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